Sheriff’s Office will be raised high tonight despite an order by President Barack Obama that flags across the country be lowered to half-staff to honor the death of iconic South African leader Nelson Mandela.

Sheriff Rick Clark told The Greenville News that he has ordered the flag be raised at the end of today because he said the honor of lowering flags to half-staff should be reserved for Americans.

“The flag at half-staff is for Americans’ ultimate sacrifice for our country,” Clark said. “We should never stray away from that.”

The flag has flown at half-staff and will continue to during daylight hours today in honor of a Lowcountry law enforcement officer who was killed and in honor of Pearl Harbor Day, Clark said.

However, come tonight, the flag will be raised, he said.

On Thursday, Obama ordered that flags be flown at half-staff on public grounds until sunset Monday.

The federal flag code “does not prescribe any penalties for non-compliance nor does it include enforcement provisions” and “functions simply as a guide to be voluntarily followed by civilians and civilian groups,” according to a U.S. congressional report commissioned by the U.S. Senate.

In a proclamation issued Thursday ordering flags at half-staff, Obama said that Mandela “achieved more than could be expected of any man.”

“While we mourn his loss, we will forever honor Nelson Mandela’s memory,” the president said. “He left behind a South Africa that is free and at peace with itself — a close friend and partner of the United States. And his memory will be kept in the hearts of billions who have been lifted up by the power of his example.”

Mandela is regarded the world over for his leadership in bringing South Africa out of the racial discrimination known as apartheid. Mandela was imprisoned in 1964 for his revolutionary activities and wasn’t released until 27 years later.

In 1994, Mandela was elected president of South Africa and lived a philanthropic life until his death Thursday at the age of 95.

I live in a highly conservative Republican county in Florida: they are all, at least as of today (before sunset) at half-mast. Though, I did have the initial thought, "I wonder who died?" and "Can't be for Mandela?" but I asked someone, and they said it was for Mandela.

All anyone has to do if find one instance of the death of anyone else not a US citizen where the flags were flown at half mast in Greenville.....whatta putz.

According to wikipedia:

Quote

Upon presidential proclamation, which has recently included: the interment of Frank Buckles,[24] the death of Senator Ted Kennedy,[25] the remembrance of the 9/11 attacks,[26] the death of Pope John Paul II,[27] the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003,[28] the victims of Hurricane Katrina,[29] the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami,[30] the deaths of Coretta Scott King[31] and Rosa Parks,[32] the Virginia Tech massacre,[33] the Fort Hood massacre,[34] the 2011 Tucson shooting, the funeral of Neil Armstrong,[35] the death of Libyan Ambassador Chris Stephens, the 2012 shooting in Aurora Colorado, the 2012 Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting, the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings,[36] the death of Nelson Mandela,[37] the 2013 Washington D.C Navy Yard shooting, and the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

I looked for more but it's mainly pages and pages of the sheriff's article, and complaints. I wonder if there were complaints when John Paul II died?